It's a go, ready or not / 'Greenlight' puts pair in Hollywood's spotlight

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2003-06-22 04:00:00 PDT Los Angeles -- Pressure? What pressure? A few months ago Kyle Rankin was waiting tables in Portland, Maine, while his partner, Efram Potelle, worked odd jobs. In their spare time, they made independent films. Rankin and Potelle submitted a sample of their work to Project Greenlight contest and in January at the Sundance Film Festival, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck announced that they had won the opportunity to co-direct a movie written by contest co-winner Erica Beeney titled "The Battle of Shaker Heights."

HBO will air a documentary series beginning tonight on the making of the film, which wrapped production in April and will be released by Miramax in August.

Lunching on a tray of sushi, they seem none the worse for wear three-quarters of the way through their virgin voyage into the realm of high-stakes Hollywood- style filmmaking.

Says Rankin, "I feel like the films we were making when we were doing our own thing back in Maine really helped us know what battles to pick, and I think that kind of shocked and amazed some of the producers. An issue would come up, and they'd say about us, 'Wow, they took that really well. They seemed rather sedate around that issue,' just because we knew what was important and what wasn't."

Potelle adds, "We came to L.A. with a pretty clear idea that it was going to be really competitive and that working within a studio system would be very political. We were prepared for all of that. What was the question again?" Potelle pauses and adds a non sequitur. "I'm like bunnies."

SURPRISINGLY LAID BACK

It should be pointed out that Rankin and Potelle have not yet seen any of HBO's "Project Greenlight" episodes. They might be in for a shock. After tonight's congratulatory first hour ends and the pre-production work begins, Rankin and Potelle are presented as mellow slackers who are so laid back, the "Shaker Heights" hard-driving support staff barely know what to make of them. For example, Potelle OKs Emil Hirsch in the starring role despite strong reservations because he says he doesn't want to hold the process up. On the other hand, Potelle scolds a director of photography for speaking "over him" during an job interview.

The directors also are shown dealing with the alien concept of actors who "take meetings" in lieu of auditioning for a role. "That took a lot of adjusting," says Rankin. "(You're told) 'Well they're coming in for a meeting, but not reading.' It's like walking around a car to see if you want it. There's no way to tell."

Which made for several awkward silences when former "NYPD Blue" star Sharon Lawrence showed up to discuss a possible "Shaker Heights" role. Neither Potelle nor Rankin could think of anything to say to the actress and simply stared at Lawrence as she gamely tried to keep up her end of the conversation.

"That was flabbergasting," says Chris Moore, one of the executive producers on "Shaker Heights." Moore will be familiar to viewers of Project Greenlight's first, 2001 season, which chronicled the tragicomic tribulations of rookie writer-director Peter Jones as he stepped behind the camera for the first time to make "Stolen Summer." The difference this time around is that Jones, an extrovert, wore his heart on his sleeve and had no problem uttering "over my dead body" while hashing out differences of opinion with studio executives.

Rankin and Potelle, on the other hand, kept their own counsel and proceeded at a laid-back pace that confounded Moore. "I certainly would have appreciated a little bit more passion behind their vision," he says.

"There's a very funny fight between them and me a few episodes into the show, because they just don't seem to be working that hard. They literally weren't even coming into the office. They ultimately do take it seriously but (early on) they were so laissez-faire about all this stuff, you sit there and go, 'Guys, you've got the chance of a lifetime! How can you not think this is important?' You're trying to get a response out of them. At first you hate 'em,

but then they find a way to communicate and they do well during the shoot so you start to root for them."

SCRIPT ABOUT MISFIT TEEN

Beeney, a former graduate student in Ohio University's writing program, joins her filmmaking partners at the table midway through lunch. She moved to Los Angeles in January prepared to revise her script about a misfit teenage war re-enactor (Shia LaBeouf) coming of age in suburban Cleveland. "There's the personal vision part, and there's also the part about being a professional, " she says. "If you want to be a writer in Hollywood you've got to be able to take notes and have those kinds of conversations with people. When I sent the script in originally, I'd just finished the second draft, so it wasn't like, 'Here's my perfectly polished gem.' "

Beeney continues, "There were certain moments that were astounding to see my vision brought to life, and other times I thought, 'Oh, that's not what I was thinking at all!' Somebody reminded me the other day that (during the shoot) I said something about, 'If this goes in I'm not even going to watch the movie.' "

duh! So yeah, I definitely did some (complaining) of course. But I don't feel,

like, bitter or that anything (of the script) was destroyed."

Then Beeney surprises her filmmaking partners when she wonders out loud, "Have you seen the first episode yet? It's interesting because it's super positive and therefore a little bit boring, you know what I mean?"

'LET'S WATCH THEM STRUGGLE'

Potelle understands exactly what she means. "Once they start narrowing the field, that's when they're going to start finding ways to make us look bad. After we win (the contest) then the big question will be, 'Who are these jokers who won? And let's watch them struggle and bump into each other.' "

Rankin, referring to the previous Greenlight winner, adds, "I think Pete really got a raw deal. I doubt if that process really went the way it was depicted. It's so easy through the power of editing to make something look like there is conflict at every turn. We know there's an intrinsic amount of conflict, a healthy amount, but I'm very curious to see how the three of us are portrayed and what it's boiled down. . . . Is it going to look like a s-- parade or actually represents what happened?"

Moore has his own thoughts on the subject. "I get the sense when Efram and Kyle see the show, they're just going to freak out about everything."